Session extension derails holiday plans

The extension of Parliament's winter session for passage of the lokpal bill has led to cancellations of MPs tours and BJP's office-bearers' meet. The session will reconvene after Christmas for three days after plans to pass the bill before Christmas, with an extension till December 23, could not materialise.

Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar was scheduled to go to Maldives via Kerala for a five-day visit. Although it was an official invitation by the Maldives Kumar asked her office on Wednesday evening to cancel the tour.

The BJP was supposed to have its office bearers' meet in Jalandhar on December 23, but the party cancelled it on Tuesday in anticipation of a working day on December 23. The rally planned for December 24 there will, however, stay on course.

Minister of state for parliamentary affairs Rajiv Shukla and BJP MP and party youth wing chief Anurag Thakur were supposed to fly to Australia to watch India's test match. They have cancelled the visit. "Lokpal is more important than the match; so I am staying back," Thakur told HT.

BJP spoksperson Shahnawaz Hussain had to cancel his hotel bookings in Goa where he was supposed to go with his family after Christmas.

The finance ministry, too, has asked its officers not to go out of Delhi. "Parliament will be functioning and a lot of work is related to our ministry. The officers must be present in Delhi...," a senior ministry official told HT.